20 April 2007 :

The radical organisations Hands Off Cain, the Italian Radicals, the Transnational Radical Party and the Coscioni Association have released the following statement: “With the indefinite hunger strike of Marco Panella, Sergio D’Elia, Valter Vecellio, Guido Biancardi, Claudia Sterzi and Lucio Bertè today reaching its third day, we ask the Italian Government to fulfil its commitment to present a resolution for the universal moratorium to the current United Nations General Assembly. The resolution is supported not only by Italy and European countries, but by representatives of all continents that share our objective. It is, in fact, absolutely essential that isn’t seen as an initiative only of the EU. We gratefully acknowledge the politically open and institutionally correct way State Secretary Stefano Boco intervened today in the Italian Parliament on behalf of the Government. On the matter of the UN Moratorium on Capital Punishment, the Government has acted in an unusual and unconstitutional way towards the Parliament. Intervening in the general debate on the abolition of the death penalty in the Italian Constitution, Boco said two important things. Firstly, the Government must “put in practice and not interpret Parliament’s decisions,” which are clearly and unanimously aimed at presenting the resolution on the moratorium to the current UN General Assembly. Secondly, the Italian Government isn’t absolutely obliged to gain a “European consensus,” instead it must be the “driving force” of the initiative to the UN General Assembly.
Government sources talk about ‘EU consensus,’ but this is a different concept to the ‘consultation with other member countries’ that the Italian Parliament has prescribed. This is also in relation to the forthcoming meeting of the EU General Affairs Council’s on April 23. It had already been stressed in Parliament that the Council would have been a mere CONSULTATION. Requiring a “European consensus” would prevent the initiative from becoming universal, and makes it sound at the very least Eurocentric, if not completely old fashioned and neo-colonialistic.”
Yesterday, the UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon confirmed his support for the “Italian Government’s initiative to present the proposal to the UN General Assembly so that a global moratorium on the death penalty can be reached.” He urged Italy to reinforce and increase its consultations with other UN member countries to reach the necessary level of support.